New York State has some of the highest electricity rates in the U.S., a whopping 53 percent above the national average, in large part due to throwing billions of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars into the wind. High electricity costs drive people and businesses out and ultimately hurt the poor the most.

Why destroy entire towns, when just one 450 megawatt gas-fired combined cycle generating unit located at New York City (where the power is needed in New York state) operating at only 60 percent of capacity, would provide more electricity than all of the wind factories in the state combined — at about a quarter of the capital costs, and without all the negative civil, economic, environmental, human health and property value impacts of industrial wind factories, or all the additional transmission lines to New York City.

The Institute for Energy Research tallied the numbers and found that each wind job costs $11.45 million, plus more than four jobs lost elsewhere in the economy; and all while wind is subsidized over 52 times more than conventional fossil fuels on a unit of production basis.

• Environmentally:

According to AWEA, there are approximately 45,100 industrial wind turbines in the U.S. today. They are remotely sited, far removed from urban centers where the power is needed, and necessitate the addition of a spider web of new transmission lines (at ratepayers’ expense), which will exponentially add to the needless bird deaths being caused by turbines themselves. Additionally, sprawling industrial wind factories cause massive habitat fragmentation, which is cited as one of the main reasons for species decline worldwide.

This lengthy and growing list is evidence of why these giant, moving machines do not belong anywhere near where people live.

AWEA even admits that the life of IWTs is only 10 – 13 years (January, 2006, North American Wind Power) – substantiated by studies on these short-lived lemons.

Adding insult to injury, the Capacity Factors (actual outputs) of all of New York State’s wind factories combined has been averaging 23%. If IWTs were cars, they would have been correctly dubbed LEMONS and relegated to the junkyard a long time ago.

• Civilly:

The only thing that has ever been reliably generated by industrial wind is complete and utter civil discord. Neighbor is pitted against neighbor, and even family member against family member, totally dividing communities (already apparent in Orleans and Niagara counties). It is the job of good government to foresee and prevent this kind of civil discord, not to promote it.

A former noise control engineer, Dr. Dan Driscoll, testified that infrasounds (sounds below 20 Hz) are sounds you can’t hear, but the body can feel. Driscoll said infrasound is not blocked by walls, and it can negatively affect the human body, especially after prolonged, continuous exposure.

Symptoms include headache, nausea, sleeplessness, dizziness and ringing in the ears. Dr. Jan Storm, a state health department official, testified that infrasound from industrial wind turbines was a problem worldwide, yet New York still had not done any health studies (despite having federal money available to do so).

Here we are six years later, and indefensibly, state officials still have not called for any independent studies to assure the protection of New York citizens. The Golden Rule, as espoused by Rotary Club International’s excellent “Four-Way Test” of the things we think, say and do, should be the moral and ethical standard our public servants aspire to uphold. The Four-Way Test asks: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

When applied to the industrial wind issue, the answers are a resounding “no!”

—————

Mary Kay Barton is a retired New York State-certified health educator and environmentalist in Silver Lake, Wyoming County. This post reproduces my letter-to-the-editor, “Wind energy ‘myths’ are spun by lobbyists, salesmen,” published by the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal(May 5, 2015).

At a recent Massachusetts Senate Forum (40 Senators present)
“Commonwealth Conversations March 18, 2015”
Comments by Chris Kapsambelis, Bourne, MA
• Electric rates are rising as a result of unintended consequences from state and regional goals to transition to a fossil-fuel-free, clean energy economy.
• Plans, policies, and regulations put forth by the EOEEA promise the transition to be cost effective, to increase fuel diversity, and to reduce GHG emissions.
• Skyrocketing rates are not cost effective. The recent 37% rate increase is just the beginning.
• Policies and regulations are impacting the electricity wholesale markets, administered by ISO-NE, forcing the early, and premature retirement of coal power plants, as intended.
• Unintended, is the premature closure of clean energy nuclear power plants.
• Instead of replacing fossil fuel with wind and solar, regulations are forcing the replacement of clean nuclear power, along with the coal, by natural gas.
• Overdependence on natural gas is just the opposite of the promised fuel diversity by EOEEA.
• Until natural gas, and coal, can be eliminated, GHG reduction is really not possible.
• Skyrocketing rates force industry with high paying jobs to leave the state and the region.
• You need to bring the DPU, DOER, DEP and ISO-NE to Beacon Hill and impress on them the need for a really cost effective transition.
• They will probably tell you it is not really possible.
• You need to pass legislation to change the mandates for Renewable Energy into just cost effective goals.
• If Global Warming is inevitable, we need to face it with a very strong economy. The prospect of facing Global Warming, in a dysfunctional economy, is really frightening.